Hair clipper comb plate



July 28, 1942'. ANDIS' [HAIR CLIPPER COMB PLATE Filed July 19, 1941INVI'INTOR MAYTHEW ,Q/va/s 6. Z'fg i 1 ATTORNEY-5.

Patented July 28, 1942 UlTE STES

QFFIQE HAER CLEPPER COMB PLATE Mathew Andis, Racine, Wis, assignor toAndis Clipper Company, Racine, Wis, a corporation of Wisconsin 7 Ciaims.

My invention relates to improvements in hair clipper comb plates.

My primary objects are to improve the efficiency of a hair clipper combplate for lifting hair lying close to the skin and presenting it in aproper position for clipping-to provide means whereby to obtain improvedstandardization of the plates with reference to their thinness orsocalled sizes,-and also to provide means where'- by comb plates may beground on both sides to a correct standardized size or plate tlncknessafter the plate has been die-cut or form-milled and tempered, andnotwithstanding warpage during the tempering or hardening operation.

Further and more specific objects will be apparent from the description.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a side elevation of the nose or working end of a hairclipper provided with a comb plate embodying a preferred form of myinvention.

Figure 2 is a View of the comb plate as seen from the under side.

Figure 3 is a View of the same as seen from the top side.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary view similar to Fi ure 2, showing a modifiedform of construction.

Figures 5 and 6 are sectional views drawn respectively to planesindicated by lines 5-5 and 66 in Figure 4.

Figure '7 is a view similar to Figure 4 showing a further modification.

Figure 8 is a sectional view drawn to line 8-3 of Figure 7.

Like parts are identified by the same reference characters throughoutthe several views.

Ordinary comb plates as heretofore constructed have had their teeth outby rotary milling tools or grinders which form channels in the undersurface of the plate, and which progressively deepen in the direction ofthe front margin until the grooves extend entirely through the plate andform the spaces or gaps between teeth. Therefore, while the uppersurface of the plate at the roots of the teeth is in a common plane withthe upper surfaces of the teeth, the lower surface is deeply channeledand presents a beveled margin between the roots of the teeth which hasan upward inclination into the gap between the teeth, terminating whereit meets the upper surface. Also, the rilled plates of the prior arthave been formed with their rilling grooves in alignment with the spacesbetwen the teeth, and at their forward ends these grooves merge with theprogressively depending channel made by the above mentioned millingcutter or grinder.

I have found that if the untoothed portion of the plate is of uniformthickness at the roots of the teeth It], whereby the base ll of eachspace or gap between any two teeth is a rectangle substantially in aplane at right angles to either the lower or the upper surface of theplate, hair lifting or plowing edges will be presented at the bottom ofthe plate between the teeth which will effectively lift hair lying closeto the skin.

While the lower surface of the plate is usually formed with a rockerbearing surface convergent toward the points of the teeth, whereas thebearing surfaces of the upper side are fiat, the variation fromparallelism between the upper and lower surfaces is insuflicient toprevent the bases of the gaps from being substantially perpendicular toboth surfaces for the purpose herein set forth, viz,to provide plowingedges or shoulders on the bottom of the plate where it registers withthe gaps between the teeth.

If desired, the base of each gap between the teeth may be flat, asindicated in Figures 2 and 3, or it may be concave as shown in Figures 4and '7, without materially changing the hair lifting function. I findthat in either case the shoulder or edge coincident with the bottomsurface can be depended upon to lift even the fuzzy hair found on thenecks of young children, and which has heretofore been Very difiicult toclip to a uniform length.

Instead of providing rilling grooves which register with the spacesbetween teeth, I preferably provide rilling grooves I2 which extendlongitudinally of the plate or parallel with its toothed margin. Theserilling grooves i2 have ridges I3 between them.

In front of the forward ridge 13 there is a flat bottomed channel Hi,parallel with the grooves l2 and margined at the roots of the teeth bywhat may be termed a wrinkling ridge l5 which bears upon the skin, andthe front side of which forms a part of the rectangular walls H at thebases of the teeth.

In the embodiment shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6, I provide rilling groovesI29 which are parallel with the axes of the teeth, but are in line withthe teeth axes, and therefore out of registry with the spaces betwen theteeth. Also, these rilling grooves I20 terminate in a ridge Icorresponding in position and function to the ridge 15 shown in Figures1 and 2.

In the modification shown in Figures 7 and 8, I employ an embossed combplate having con-- cave circular depressions 20 in its upper surface andcorresponding convex bulges 2| on its lower surface. These embossedportions are staggered, as illustrated, and the zone which they occupyis preferably separated from the teeth by a longitudinally extendingrill or groove 22 and a ridge Il, similar in position and function tothe ridge l5 shown in Figures 1 and 2.

In the ordinary hair clipper the rills or grooves are of substantiallyno value except for the purpose of reducing the frictional contact ofthe comb plate with the skin. The ridges between them serve as runners,and the groove portions are out of contact with the skin.

But in the preferred embodiment of my invention, as shown in Figures 1,2 and 3, the ridges [3 cause wave-like elevations of the skin over whichthe comb plate is being advanced, thus tensioning the skin, and thecrest of the forward wave immediately in front of the rib IE will, withthe assistance of this ridge, cause even the finest hairs to swing to aposition perpendicular to the skin, thereby positioning such hairsacross the spaces between the teeth to be clipped by the vibratorycutter blade 25. Even the finest and most fuzzy hair may therefore beclipped with substantial uniformity.

Barbers usually employ six different sizes of clipper plates, the termsize being used with reference to thickness of the plate or the lengthof cut to be obtained by the plate. The so-called finer sizes used forclose cutting include about 98 percent of the clippers in use, and atthe points of the teeth there is only from .005 to .0010 of an inchdifierence in thickness. This means that the blades in process ofhardening must be kept from warping more than .1002 of an inch to .003of an inch, or else must go through expensive straightening operations.The thinner the plate, the harder it is to keep it straight in theprocess of hardening, and the less tolerance there is to warpage.

Without grinding such plates across the teeth on both sides to producecomb plates of the finer sizes, it is impossible .to obtain perfectuniformity with more than a small percentage of plates, and therefore alarge percentage of the prior art plates vary in size within thedifferent groups, perfect standardization not being realized. Also, dueto warpage, the teeth vary in thickness in different portions of thesame plate.

By running the rills laterally across the comb plate as shown in Figures1, 2 and 3, it is possible to allow the necessary material for grinding,not only on the cutting surface, but also on the 0pposite side in frontof the rills across the teeth. Therefore standardization or uniformthickness in the respective groups can be obtained, and parallelism ofthe teeth across the width of the plate can be fully controlledregardless of the average warpage during the hardening process.

As the comb plate moves forwardly during the process of cutting hair,the rib nearest to the teeth raises a slight ripple on the skinunderneath the teeth, and this tends to cause the ends of the hairslying close to the surface of the skin to separate from it andprogressively strike the grooveless bottom of the gap between the teeth,thus forcing the hairs up into shearing position. Also, the first ribnext to the teeth keeps the skin stretched to some extent and eliminatessome of the friction between the following ribs and the skin. The outeror bottom surface of the plate is arcuately curved from rear to front inthe usual manner, thus permitting a rocking of the clipper to raise orlower the teeth with reference to the skin and facilitate tapering thehair around the neck and side of the head.

In accordance with ordinary practice, all surplus material on the uppersurface of the plate is eliminated to reduce the friction between thetwo plates and the area to be finished by the grinding operation.

I claim:

' 1. A hair clipper comb plate having shear teeth and being ofsubstantially uniform thickness along a line common to the bases of theteeth.

2. A hair clipper comb plate having shear teeth and being ofsubstantially uniform thickness along a line common to the bases of theteeth, said plate having rilling on its bottom surface out of registrywith the spaces between the teeth.

3. A hair clipper comb plate having a margin provided with shear teethand being of substantially uniform thickness along a line common to thebases of the teeth, said plate having rilling .on its bottom surface outof registry with the spaces between the teeth and extending transverselyof the toothed margin of the plate.

4. A hair clipper comb plate having shear teeth with intervening gapsand having substantially planiform top and bottom surfaces adjacent thebases of said gaps, the bases of the gaps between the teeth extendingtransversely across the plate and forming with the bottom of the platean abrupthair lifting shoulder.

5. A hair clipper comb plate having a toothed I margin and a supportingsurface along said margin, said plate being provided with rillinggrooves along lines parallel with the toothed margin of the plate.

6. A hair clipper comb plate having a toothed margin and frictionrelieving projections on its under surface, separated from the combteeth by a substantially planiform area elongated and extending paralleland contiguous to the toothed margin of the plate.

7. A hair clipper comb plate having its forward margin provided withspaced shear teeth and with a lower surface portion which issubstantially rectilinear at a given level across the spaces betweensaid teeth, said plate having immediately behind said portion anupwardly offset area throughout which are convex downwardly projectingbosses distributed in sufficient numbers over the offset area to providesupport for the comb plate from a skin surface traversed thereby.

MATHEW ANDIS.

